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The Petaled Lady
The Petaled Lady is the Elder God worshiped by the Southern Rose, our most persistent and largest enemy. The Southern Rose cult is hands down our greatest adversary, a cult almost exclusively devoted to the doomsday mission of returning their mad goddess to the world. It can be assured that when your cabal realizes it's moving against the Southern Rose, you're moving against a plot to return this elder god to the world. Background The information that we have regarding the Petaled Lady is ambiguous at best. It has been gleaned from documentation we have managed to pilfer or photocopy from the Southern Rose libraries and interrogation of high ranking cult members and leaders. This information has to come to us at great cost, we have lost many good agents to retrieve this data so please read carefully. The time is ancient, the place most likely Mesopotamia, Sumeria, or possibly even China circa 3000 BC. The group and idealogoy of what would become the Cult of the Southern Rose was already active although at that time with a vastly different end goal, which remains indeterminate. What we do know of this pre-cult is that flowers played a particularly high role in their rites and practices. Through some means, the pre-Cult or some other cult in the region managed to cause a distortion in reality, which opened a small rift to some unnamed realm of chaos and horror. Through this rip poured dozens of foul creatures, which soon embroiled humanity in furious battles for survival. The human race gained the upper hand over these undulating malignancies, prompting their supreme general, an Elder God who'se name was either forgotten or never known to begin oozing itself slowly into the city. Terrified, the residents of the city to a warrior flung down their weapons and fled, leaving the city abandoned. The only one to stay was the Southern Rose forerunner's high priestess, whose name may have been Incess, Lyria, or Hamaret; although none of these may be correct. This woman, armed with flowers, a small sword, and prayers stood her ground as more of the Elder God slithered, flopped, and undulated into the city. After many days of silence from the city, with no sign of movement the inhabitants whom had fled to the nearby hills began to creep back to discover what had happened. They found many dead other-dimensional enemies and the rift closed. They also found the priestess, alive and well and vastly metamorphosed. She had either slain the encroaching outer god or driven it back to its home plane. In the process she had become greatly endowed with superhuman power. It is said that: "She knew the thoughts of men before those thoughts could be put into words, she could see into their hearts and discern the truth of their emotions, motivations, and desires. She could speak to a man without using her voice, the man would know her voice within his own mind. She was stronger than twenty of the strongest men combined. Beasts would obey her will and command and not just men, the sky and the sands would spring to obey her will." This woman now became the nucleus of the cult. She was waorshiped as a goddess in her own right and it was stamped into law that to speak her name as one speaks to a friend was a blasphemy, she would only be known as Dominae Petalorum, or the Petaled Lady. Alternately, she could also have been called the Queen of the Flowers, Goddess of Petals, or Daughter of Roses; the exact translation remains unclear so Petaled Lady she became. A large temple was built in her honor where she dwelled, without the need for sleep or food, surrounded by a dozens of tigers. With each day that passed and, aided by the miracles of healing and deciphering dreams, her worshipers grew in number. However, she also slowly lost her altruistic demeanor. She became more violent and bloodthirsty, demanding human sacrifices to her in exchange for the services she rendered. Even her own followers were not immune; those that spoke ill or her demands or even questioned her commandments were brutally tortured before being killed. None were spared. Men, woman, children, and even total families were destroyed at her word. It wasn't long before the king was made aware of the situation. He marched upon her temple with 500 of his best soldiers. None of them survived. At this point, all information regarding the Petaled Lady and her cult vanished from historic records. The reason is not clear but the likeliest explanations are that either mention of her or the cult was outlawed by the next succession of kings, or the Lady herself. She did not turn up again until the Southern Rose cult appeared in Europe, gaining footholds in England, Ireland, Germany, France, and Rome circa 300 BC. The Rose was most active in Rome and stayed theere as its largest stronghold until the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire. Some documents and paintings surviving from this time period make mention of the cult and the fact that the Petaled Lady was still active and engaging. With the fall of Rome the Cult became most active in the British Isles. In 1650 the malignant actions of the Southern Rose and the fact that they had an active Elder God on their throne attracted the attention of the Darklight Society and we began taking an active role in stamping out the cult fires. Alas, we were wholly unprepared for the Petaled Lady herself to enter the fray. We sustained horrible losses, not just among cabals but we lost entire chapter and safehouses as well. When the Southern Rose came dangerously close to uncovering our operations and exposing us to the world we activated our own doomsday weapon. With misdirection, guile, and outright falsehoods were were able to convince thirteen mystic Cosmics that this cult and their monstrous leader posed an immenent threat to the sanctity of the world itself. These thirteen men and women converged on the Southern Rose headquarters on September 2, 1666. The Petaled Lady and most of the black magicians of the most politically and socially powerful family under her control, the Ashcrofts, fought back with a ferocity that startled even we of the Darklight Society. The end result of the combat was the almost complete destruction of the Ashcroft family and the Petaled Lady banished to an otherworldly plane where "the shades of men walk as if they were made of flesh and blood once more." This may very well be the Nightward, but we can't be sure; none of us have proven willing to explore the Nightward to make sure. Of the original thirteen Cosmics whom started the battle only five survived to limp home. The greatest victim of this conflict, however, was the city of London. The battle sparked the Great Fire of London. For four days the fire gutted most of London, vaporizing 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 inhabitants. After the fire was finished we made our gravest error. Thinking the Southern Rose and its ruling Ashcroft family destroyed, we relinquished our watch and turned our attention to other matters. We then learned that three Ashcroft had survived, and turned up in the new world in 1787. We scrambled to the Colonies to intercept but we were too late: the Southern Rose had become entrenched and, worse, was growing. Since that time this deadliest of cults has been the greatest enemy of the Darklight Society, always seeking above all else to find the means to release the Petaled Lady from her other-dimensional prison so that she may cover the world in darkness, make the Ashcroft family her new world governors, and sit on her horned throne as enslaved mankind bleeds and bleats at her bare feet. In Conclusion The Painted Lady is an Elder God and, as such, the scope of her power is far beyond the capability of any single agent or cabal. It would take at least a dozen cabals, working in unison, to confront her if she were able to manifest in the world again. We don't even know the extent of her powers or limitations, if any, because our records are woefully, inadequately, incomplete. She is the only Elder God that we know for a fact actually exists. For this reason we must be constantly vigilant against the machinations of the Southern Rose. They have the motive, but not the means or opportunity, to breach the barrier that separates her from us and for this reason above all others we must act and act quickly when we detect The Southern Rose is on the move. Dr. Maggie Urquidez Templar Paradigm City Cabal